This course examines racism through anthropological perspectives on colonization, global capitalism and white supremacy. In particular, we examine race and racism as structural formations intimately tied to power and inequity. Questions we consider are, how do race and racism affect our everyday lives? How do anthropologists study race and racism? What strategies do anthropologists employ in analyzing racism in the United States and around the globe? Where have these concepts come from, and how do they change over time? Focused on the connections between race and transnationalism set in motion by European colonization, forced labor migrations and various forms of enslavement, this course considers racism as a political system that is mapped onto transnational, social, communal, and interpersonal relationships fomented by white supremacy. We also attend to the ways in which marginalized people respond to, refuse, and resist forms of racialized oppression.
- Teacher: Laurian Bowles